Proposed New Track for UAB’s Masters in Engineering (MEng) Degree Program. (Parties with a vested interest in this proposal have met since it was tabled during the December meeting. The consensus view will be presented). Dr. Fouad answered questions during the second vetting of the proposal. The program will grant the degree Masters in Engineering Management. The program will require twelve credit hours in engineering and additional credit hours in other elective courses. ADCOM members inquired whether the courses are oriented only to the practice of engineering. A total of eight courses will be offered with only four of the courses centered on engineering topics. Two additional courses are law based and two are more management oriented. The course listing on the Masters of Engineering website has been corrected. Domestic students can travel to Egypt to take course but the program will be designed predominantly for international students. There will be no differences the requirements for students in Egypt and those for students who take the course work in the US. Domestic students at UAB will not be allowed to opt in to complete the fast track. A total of twelve credit hours can be transferred from Egypt as Egyptian universities have the same accreditation requirements as does UAB. The Master of Engineering Science degree will require all students to complete a thesis. A motion was made to approve the program. The ADCOM membership voted to support the proposal with one abstention noted. The program will begin early in the summer of 2012 with teaching in Egypt and the same courses will begin in the Fall semester at UAB.

Review of the full proposal for a new degree: Master of Science in Management Information Systems. (ADCOM reviewed the NISP for this proposal during the October 2011 meeting). The new degree program will target working professionals and IT specialists. The degree will be a professional/practice based graduate degree. The degree will require thirty course credit hours with eighteen core course hours. The program will be online to allow it to serve a national audience. A hybrid model may be developed to include in-class time. A survey of potential enrollments has been completed. The strategy of the Business School is to grow programs in a competitive niche in areas of potential commercialization. The ADCOM computer science representative questioned the potential overlap with offerings from the CIS department. The response was that the course titles have some similarities to CIS several courses but have very little overlap in course content. The new program can be a bridge between individuals who have either technical or business expertise, with more of a focus on value to business professionals. Similar programs are at Huntsville and Auburn, but because the program is basically offered exclusively online, there should be little concern regarding competition for prospective students. Three existing course from the MBA program will be offered as elective courses. ADCOM members recommended adding the target goals for programmed learning measures and quantitative data for prospective demand. There will be six core courses. A sample program of study in each track was provided in the proposal. Students from non-management backgrounds will have to take additional course work to be ready to take the more advanced management course work. A Google click survey through rate that polled prospective students and other market tests demonstrated that during the first year enrollment could reach as many as 100 students. New faculty will be added as additional tuition revenue allows. It will take two years for students to complete the degree requirements and it is expected that most companies will pay for their employees to complete the program. A motion to approve the proposal with the changes suggested was made. ADCOM members voted unanimously for approval.